[Web4lib] Interesting Web/Library 2.0 data (wasparticpationSkillsfor Library 2.0 Leaders)

[Mark Costa]

Can we say that for the next few years, the biggest thing we have to focus
on is modularizing our content, and getting it integrated into other
people's content? Can we honestly admit that we will not be the "primary"
information destination for most people, but instead say that we can add
value by helping you create an information rich environment? I think we can
do that by leveraging technologies to make our resources open for "cherry
picking".

The biggest challenge for us at that time will be to aggregate data to
justify what we do, instead of just getting people to use our services.

-mc

On 5/3/07, Walker, David <dwalker at calstate.edu> wrote:
>
> I think the largest barrier we face in implementing the ideas of 'Library
> 2.0' is that libraries have never really solved *the* fundamental problem
> from the days of 'Library 1.0' -- namely, integration.
>
> Getting your data out to other places and allowing people to contribute
> data back is all well and good.  I'm all for it.
>
> But if your Library is offering RSS feeds and tagging and other social
> features among a half-dozen vendor-developed systems and hundreds of
> remotely hosted databases -- none of which know anything about each other or
> even operate in the same way -- then we've greatly diminished the utility of
> these features.  Who wants to go hunting around for RSS feeds or tagging
> records in a dozen different library systems?  Would it not be better to
> have all of that in one system?
>
> I think Library / Learning Management System integration is probably *the*
> most important thing academic libraries should be working on.  But, again,
> before we do that, we need to get all of our library systems integrated
> together, otherwise we just end up recreating the distributed, disconnected
> mess of the library in a new space.
>
> 'Library 2.0' is, as far as I can tell, also about opening systems up, and
> I think that is ultimately what is going to drive the integration I'm
> talking about. The problem, though, is that a lot of our vendors are now
> rushing to add tagging and RSS feeds and other features to their current
> systems, and not focusing on developing good APIs.  How many ILS systems and
> aggregator sites are still only accessible via Z39.50?
>
> The Library community is driving this by focusing on social features
> *before* focusing on integration.  Layering Web 2.0 over a fragmented,
> disconnected systems architecture perpetuates our problems.  Let's focus on
> integration first, demanding that our vendors create good, open APIs.  That
> will make everything else we want to do much, much easier -- even the old
> fashioned things of 'Library 1.0'.
>
> --Dave
>
> -------------------
> David Walker
> Library Web Services Manager
> California State University
> http://xerxes.calstate.edu
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Rob Amend
> Sent: Thu 5/3/2007 10:17 AM
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Interesting Web/Library 2.0 data
> (wasparticpationSkillsfor Library 2.0 Leaders)
>
>
>
> Exactly!  Libraries need to push information to those who want/need it,
> not
> wait for patrons to approach our institutional sites.
>
> On 5/3/07, Hutchens, Chad <chutchens at montana.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Getting our content elsewhere in our users' daily routines without
> forcing
> > them to go to our library websites....Relying on people to come through
> the
> > library website as a gateway is a very dated idea to be sure.  And I do
> > think that new technologies can be the vehicle that drives that
> change.  XML
> > is perhaps the most promising of them all.
> >
> > Respectfully,
> >
> > Chad Hutchens
> > E-Resources Librarian
> > Montana State University
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Rob Amend
> > Reference Librarian
> > rob.amend at gmail.com
> > reftechrob.blogspot.com
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-- 
Mark R. Costa, MLS

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man."
--- George Bernard Shaw